OLYMPIA – Sport anglers will have the opportunity to reel in salmon off the Washington coast starting Saturday, June 24.

That’s when marine areas 1 (Ilwaco), 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay) open daily for salmon fishing. Marine Area 2 (Westport) will open a week later on July 1.

Fish managers expect slightly higher numbers of chinook and coho salmon will make their way through the ocean this year as compared to 2016, said Wendy Beeghley, an ocean salmon manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

Due to the improved forecasts, the recreational chinook catch quota this year is 45,000, up from 35,000 in 2016.This year’s coho quota of 42,000 fish is an increase of 23,100 coho from 2016, when anglers were allowed to keep coho only in Marine Area 1. Coho retention is allowed in all four marine areas this summer.

Anglers fishing in marine areas 1 and 2 will have a daily limit of two salmon, only one of which can be a chinook. In areas 3 and 4, anglers will have a two-salmon daily limit. In all areas, anglers must release wild coho.

All four marine areas are scheduled to close to salmon fishing at the end of the day Sept. 4 but could close earlier if the quota is met.

However, with a month remaining in the fishery, only 43 percent of the coho quota has been reached for the coast.

“With so much of the coho catch quota remaining this late in the season, we can allow anglers to keep both hatchery and wild coho without exceeding our conservation objectives for wild salmon,” Milward said.

Through Aug. 30, anglers have caught 64,576 coho of the 150,800 coho quota for the coast.

Ocean salmon fisheries are currently scheduled to continue through Sept. 30 in all four marine areas.

Anglers have a two-salmon daily catch limit in all four marine areas off the Washington coast. Up to two chinook may be retained in Marine Area 1 (Ilwaco) and Marine Area 2 (Westport); anglers fishing off La Push (Marine Area 3) and west of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line off Neah Bay (Marine Area 4) can keep one chinook as well as two additional pink salmon as part of their daily catch limit.